 |
| Rackwick beach |
 |
| Rackwick cliffs |
Saturday, 17 April 2010
At six, the hail began tapping on the Velux windows, at seven the fields and hills were white and at nine the bright blue sky was washed clear of all clouds. We wondered what else the Icelandic volcanic eruptions would serve up today. We were staying in a new Croft house in Rackwick on Hoy for a long weekend. The place where Sir Peter Maxwell Davies composed concertos and where George Mackay Brown retreated from his home town of Stromness, a 5-mile walk and a ferry crossing away. It looks like a dying crofting village but there is a lot to enjoy in one of the UK's most remote settlements. It nestles between high sea cliffs and boasts a kilometre-long beach with a fine geological collection of wave-eroded rocks, stones and pebbles.
It has one of Scotland's best walks around the sea cliffs to the Old Man of Hoy on an excellent path that was repaired with various grants last year by the RSPB. The walk takes in some spectacular sandstone cliffs and on the open moorland, great skuas give flying demonstrations and protect their territory against straying people with Stuka-like bombing manoeuvres. The Old Man is the lodestone for thousands of sea birds, fulmars in particular. To the northwest squalls were gathering reinforced by some dark-looking Icelandic volcanic ash and then a sea mist came and went just like that. There is an authentic museum of crofting life just up the hill from the path which is worth a visit on the return.
To the northeast of Rackwick is Ward Hill, Orkney's highest hill, 479 metres high and flanked by steep heather slopes and moorlands that are also home to Great Skuas. The summit ridge is partly stripped of vegetation which makes for easy walking over to the cairn and trig point. Stromness is just a tidal rip away and almost all the islands of Orkney can be seen but not on this day when the northern isles were blanketed in clouds. We returned to Rackwick for some beachcombing in the breezy sunshine amidst the dazzling array of rocks. This place just abounds in natural being.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.